Diary of Writing Italy’s Sorrow

Cassino, May 17, 2004
Bit of a cock-up today.  On my way to Stanstead, I went to see Clive and Linda Denney and Vintage Restorations.  Unfortunately, I didn’t realise how quite how far they are from Stanstead, nor how bad the traffic would be so by the time I had parked and caught a bus to Departures, there was only ten minutes until my plane for Rome was due to leave – and so I wasn’t allowed on.  Fortunately, there was a flight to Naples not long after and I got on that instead.  When I eventually reached Naples, it was getting dark and by the time I’d got myself a hire car and found my out of the airport it was pitch black with no moon.  This was fine along the motorway north, but not so good when I turned off towards the B&B where I was staying.  Cassino itself has been fully booked for months and so the nearest place I could find was in the Aurunci mountains somewhere, north-west of Cassino.  Needless to say, I got completely lost.  By now it was nearing midnight and I had to ring the owner who, fortunately, came and met in the nearest village and led me back to his house in the hills.  Thank God he did, because I would never ever have found it.